Kandace Baggan 

 

I am one of the IMT1s currently in the Enhance programme.  I have written my insight on this experience below and hope that you are encouraged to take up on this great initiative. 

 

The Enhnace programme is an opportunity to  become a more well-rounded physician.  The programme itself, spans throughout the 3 years of IMT and you will participate in group projects that relate to social and leadership skills in medicine.  There are extra study days which helps cater the time needed for this.  On the rotation you will be based in the community on normal working days and be super-numerary which allows for more focus on education and training.  However, your usual number of calls will be done in the medical admission unit.  You can work with different community teams and very closely with GPs and ACPs.  These services include the acute home visiting team, sexual  health clinic, urgent treatment centres and rounds in rehabilitation wards.  This provides a unique perspective as a hospital doctor who is fully are of not just patient’s needs in the community but the resources and abilities of our colleagues who support us and hospitals through their hard work. 

 

Khin Yadanar Kyaw 

Being the first Enhance IMT trainee, it was challenging in the beginning with lots of new things to develop but everyone was supportive. I was able to observe and learn holistic approach to consult patients in community settings. My rotation includes home visits and care home visits with acute home visiting services, frailty team, dementia palliative team as well as attending diabetes education services, podiatry clinics and urgent treatment centre.  

In this 4-month rotation, I have met clinic numbers for the year as well as great number of SLEs (CBDs, MiniCexes, OPCATs). There are lots of learning opportunities including public health, social determinants and health inequalities. With trainee-centred flexible rota, it was easy to accommodate my taster days/study leaves/annual leaves.  

I was able to learn different leadership styles in different teams as well as reflecting my leadership role as a doctor when working with different professionals.  

Generalism in my opinion focuses on patient-centered but holistic approach, and rationalizing appropriately. I’m sure we will somehow see ourselves reflecting on generalism as we go along our career ladder. 

After finishing my 4-month rotation in the community, I am currently working on a public health project with Changing Futures organization, Nottingham. 

 

 

Sacha Dowling 

The Enhance programme is a new opportunity within IMT with a focus on social medicine and leadership skills. It includes both a 4month community based placement, and also spans the 3 year IMT programme with ongoing opportunities for quality improvement, courses, and potentially even research. There are also dedicated days of training ongoing throughout IMT.  

 

The course aims to include public health and generalism which are areas not often explored by traditional training. The immersive placement includes spending time with various community based teams, which gives an interesting and unique opportunity to learn more about community medicine and the roles of different specialities. This not only allows us to be aware of the services within the community that may aid our patients once they are discharged, but highlights that there are many principles to learn from which can be taken forward as hospital doctors to improve our practice and make us more rounded clinicians.